David Jones sex scandal not isolated, say ex-staff

Mark McInnes and model Megan Gale. Photo / Getty Images

Mark McInnes, the former chief executive of department store David Jones, made advances to a string of women, it was reported yesterday, as the person at the eye of the scandal that forced his resignation was named as Kristy Fraser-Kirk, a 25-year-old publicist.

McInnes, 45, fled to the Italian Riviera with his pregnant partner, Lisa Kelly, after admitting on Friday to "unbecoming" behaviour with a female employee. His abrupt departure from DJs, announced in a statement to the stock exchange, shocked the sedate world of retailing and set the Australian business world abuzz.

Renowned for his Italian designer suits and expensive face creams, twice-divorced McInnes had transformed the company's fortunes since becoming chief executive in 2003. But he was also a party animal who loved to socialise with models such as Elle Macpherson and Megan Gale, and who reportedly had a weakness for beautiful blond women.

Former David Jones employees told the Sun Herald yesterday that the corporate high-flier, who made regular appearances in newspaper gossip columns, would woo young women with expensive gifts.

One said: "If you see a DJs girl walking around with a Louis Vuitton bag on her shoulder, you know for a fact she's had a dalliance with Mark McInnes. There are so many girls who have left DJs because of the way he behaved it's not funny."

Unnamed former colleagues of McInnes, who received a payout worth more than A$8.6 million ($10.6 million) in cash and shares, told the Sydney Morning Herald that "many of the young women to whom he had previously made advances were too afraid to complain".

Two incidents - one at a party for Prairie, the beauty products manufacturer, one at a DJs corporate function - led to Fraser-Kirk lodging a formal complaint. She has reportedly engaged Harmers, a leading firm which handled a A$10 million sexual harassment case brought against PricewaterhouseCoopers by a former executive, Christina Rich.

McInnes, who has a Bondi penthouse, was a ubiquitous figure on the Sydney A-list social scene, hosting VIP fashion shows and laying on corporate marquees at the Royal Randwick races. He and Kelly are now in Portofino, after flying first-class.

Friends have defended him, with one telling the Sun Herald that McInnes had "zero tolerance" for sexual harassment, and "totally misread her [Fraser-Kirk's] signals".